July 30 (Bloomberg) -- Hiscox Ltd. said Chief Underwriting
Officer Robert Childs will succeed Robert Hiscox as chairman of
the second-biggest Lloyd’s of London insurer by market value.

Childs, 61, who has worked at the insurer since at least
1986, will take over as chairman once Hiscox retires in
February, the Hamilton, Bermuda-based firm said today in a
statement. Investors holding about 30 percent of the firm’s
shares supported the decision, Hiscox said.

Robert Hiscox, 69, announced earlier this year his
retirement from the firm, which he has led since his father died
in 1970. Hiscox built the insurer from an underwriting
partnership to a global insurer with 28 offices in 11 countries.
He helped save Lloyd’s of London from collapse in the early
1990s by bringing in capital from money managers, replacing a
300-year tradition of investment from private individuals.

“Given that the number one risk is insurance, we thought
having somebody who has a deep knowledge of the risks in the
business would in the long-run be of greater value,” Chief
Executive Officer Bronek Masojada said in a telephone interview.
“Poor strategy will slowly destroy a company. What will destroy
it rapidly is poor underwriting.”

Hiscox swung to a pretax profit of 125.8 million pounds
($198 million) in the first half from a loss of 85.6 million
pounds in the year-earlier period, when the industry suffered
from payouts related to natural disasters. Analysts had
predicted a profit of 109.1 million pounds, according to the
average of 11 estimates surveyed by the insurer.

The stock rose 0.7 percent to 441 pence at 9:06 a.m. in
London trading, the highest on record, valuing the company at
about 1.7 billion pounds.

The firm increased its first-half dividend 18 percent to 6
pence a share, above the analysts’ estimate of 5.42 pence.